On Wednesday evening at the William Penn Fire Company station, the team representing a developer who wants to build 120 residences on the Harriet Black Family Farm was cross-examined by attorneys representing the Hulmeville Conservation Inc., as well as other Hulmeville Borough residents who oppose the building of the apartments, townhomes, and single-family dwellings.
Gene Lorenzetti of Superior Holdings LLC, along with a team of legal professionals and engineers, were in attendance for a conditional use hearing in front of the Hulmeville Borough Council as well as close to 100 Hulmeville residents.
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Lorenzetti is proposing building three 11-unit apartment buildings, 49 townhomes, and 38 single-family homes at the 45-acre site off Trenton Road.
Robert Cunningham, of Holmes Cunningham Engineering, helped develop the plan that was proposed to the council, and was cross-examined by Terry Clemons of Clemons, Richter & Reiss, P.C. of Doylestown.
A major topic of discussion for the revised plan was the fact that there would only be one entrance to the development.
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“You are comfortable with a plan that has 120 homes and only a single road of access” Clemon asked.
“Yes,” Cunningham replied.
Cunningham, did say that the developer is also looking at options for adding an emergency access point for the development.
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Other subjects included the emergency aspect of the layout of the proposed plan. Clemons argued that the single entrance could be an issue if a fire occurs on site. Clemons also asked Cunningham if he had investigated historic preservation of the farmhouse and barn on the Harriet Black property. Cunningham told Clemmons that he visually inspected both buildings and believed that due to the buildings’ deteriorating states that they would not further investigate historical preservation.
The meeting, which lasted close to three hours and which mostly included questioning between Clemons and Cunningham, did come to an end with comments from the general public.
Sidney Carpenter, who lives across from the proposed development, asked when the topic of traffic would be addressed. The council motioned that they would readjourn on May 18 at 7 p.m. at the fire department. On that day there will be a new “witness” and, if time allows, there will be another traffic professional to answer such questions regarding traffic congestion.
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Carpenter, who has lived in Hulmeville for 25 years and was one of many individual parties represented at the meeting, said she doesn’t want the property built at all.
“I really don’t. It’s going to be built on, but I just want it to be a sane solution. And traffic is going to be a big problem. I like having open space. My kids used to play in those woods and everyone’s kids have sledded on that hill. It’s a tradition in this area and there are very few places where you can do that,” said Carpenter, of Hulmeville.
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Terry Clemons believes that Superior Holdings and their engineers still have work to do before a plan is ready to be voted on by the Hulmeville Borough Council.
“This plan is filled with errors that shouldn’t be there for a plan that they are requesting the borough council to act on and its not sufficient to say ‘we will come back and redo it.’ This plan should’ve complied with the ordinances and it doesn’t,” Clemons said.
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The 120 proposed dwellings was an increase from the initial proposal of 111 dwellings in 2022. If the development is constructed, a homeowners association would be established to maintain the open space and amenities, representatives for the developer said.
If conditional use is approved when the hearing resumes at the May 18 council meeting, the proposal will still have to go through the land development process and come before council again for final approvals.
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